Treasure hunt
by Silverbengal
Summary: When Nero announces a schoolwide treasure-hunt, Otto and the gang are determined to win. But when the teaching staff get involved, things become a little more difficult.
1. Die, bunny, die!

Otto knew that it was going to be one of those days when he woke up twisting round a fold of his duvet and screaming "Die, bunny, die!".

A few minutes earlier

Otto was standing meadow. He was surrounded by long grass and flowers, and there was nobody else in sight. "Hello!" Otto called out, wondering where he was. To his surprise, a little bunny bounced up to him. The bunny opened its mouth, but instead of the cute little squeak that Otto expected, a loud beeping emitted from the animal's mouth. The beeping got louder and louder, until Otto couldn't take it anymore. He picked up the bunny and clamped its jaw shut. The noise continued to increase in volume, despite the fact that the bunny's mouth was firmly closed. Otto, now thoroughly irritated, grabbed the neck of the bunny and squeezed it. Suddenly, he felt something shake his shoulder. He woke with a start. Wing looked down at him, an expression of curious amusement on his face. Otto went red as he realised that the beeping sound was his alarm clock and the bunny's "neck" was in fact part of his duvet. Otto sighed. He had double political corruption first thing that morning, and it hadn't been a great start to the day. He wanted to go back to bed, and not to dream of bunnies. This desire was increased as three loud beeps came over the public address system, signalling a schoolwide announcement. H.I.V. 's calm voice came over the PA system. "A whole school assembly will be held in the main hall in fifteen minutes. Attendance is, of course, compulsory, and those who fail to come will be given detention with Colonel Francisco."

Otto groaned and shoved his head back under the pillow.


	2. The announcement

Otto groaned. Whole school assemblies always meant that something had gone really badly wrong. Unfortunately for Otto, he always seemed to get blamed when that was the case. Otto rolled out of bed and hit the hard, cold floor of the room he shared with Wing. He got to feet and went into the bathroom, then showered, brushed his teeth, got dressed in his black alpha jumpsuit and went back into the bedroom. Wing was ready, and was sitting on his bed, tapping at his blackbox while he waited for Otto. As Otto walked in, Wing stood up and placed his hand on the palm reader, opening the door. The two boys walked out of the room and down the stairs into the atrium, where they were met by Laura and Shelby.

"Hey guys," called Shelby as she jogged up to them, "any idea what this is about?"

"No clue," replied Otto, "but I'm willing to bet it's not good."

"Aye, you're probably right there, Otto." Laura said, joining them. Suddenly, the conversation was interrupted by a loud voice with a thick German accent.

"But we cannot be missing breakfast!" wailed Franz.

"The dining hall is closed until after the assembly," replied Nigel, going red as heads turned in their direction.

"We will be getting in somehow," said Franz.

"No, we won't," Nigel said firmly "assembly starts in five minutes and the punishment for missing it is detention with the Colonel!" Franz paled, trying to decide whether his need for food outweighed his fear of Colonel Francisco. Eventually, he decided that it didn't, and allowed Nigel to lead him towards Otto and the others.

"Come on," Nigel said, "let's go before Franz changes his mind."

A few minutes later, the six of them were sitting down in the main hall, waiting for Nero, trying to think of what might have caused this assembly.

"It might have something to do with the small nuke that I detonated in lab seven, but I think that would be a bit of an overreaction," suggested Otto.

"Overreaction!" Repeated Laura "The lab is still a smouldering radioactive crater!"

It was worth it though," grinned Otto.

"I told you it would…" Laura started, then fell silent as Dr. Nero walked onto the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Nero began, "At some point during your careers, you will undoubtedly find yourself in a situation where you must complete a mission which you are almost completely unprepared for. Should this happen, it is vital that you are not completely incapable of planning at short notice. For this reason, there will be a surprise assessment all day tomorrow for students in all years. There will be a treasure hunt. Coins will be hidden all around the school by the security staff during the night, and tomorrow morning, you will, either alone, or in groups of up to four people be trying to find as many as you can. However, this is no ordinary treasure hunt. For a start, the teaching staff will be competing, either alone or in pairs. While some coins will be lying around in very obvious places, many of them will be in some of the school's most secure areas. There will be a prize for the person or group who collects the most coins. If a member of the teaching staff wins, then they will be allowed to set as much homework as they like for the rest of the term. Night time lockdown will be postponed by one hour in order to allow you to get into groups and make plans. That is all."


	3. Planning

"Okay guys, I've signed us up," Shelby announced as she walked back into Otto and Wing's room. Students who wished to hunt in groups had to sign up on the notice board outside the main hall. "I don't think that there are many student groups with even a hope of beating us," Shelby continued, " but the teachers can't resist the chance to give us extra homework, and the only teacher not competing is Nero."

"It seems unfair that the teaching staff are allowed to compete," commented Wing, "after all, they already have access to all the school's secure areas."

"Not tomorrow they don't," replied Shelby with a grin, "It said on the notice board that apart from Nero, who isn't competing, all members of the teaching staff have their access privileges revoked for tomorrow. They're in the same position as the rest of us."

"Okay then," asked Laura "What pairs are the teachers in?"

"I can't remember all of them, but the only pair that should present us with a problem is Professor Pike and Ms Leon." Shelby told her.

Otto grimaced. "The Professor should be able to hack most of the security, and what he can't hack, Ms Leon will find some way of getting past."

"Only if they stop fighting for long enough," put in Laura.

"Yes, there is always that," Otto chuckled.

"So what is our plan of action?" asked Wing seriously.

"I think that we should head straight to the Vault," suggested Otto, "I'll bet there are a lot of coins in there. After that, we head to as many of the secure areas as we can, picking up coins from easy to reach places on the way."

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Laura, and Wing and Shelby nodded.

"We should probably get back," Shelby told Laura, looking at her watch, "Night time lockdown starts in five minutes."

"Aye, let's go," agreed Laura, yawning as she stood up from her perch on the end of Otto's bed, "Now go straight to sleep boys," she said in a mock severe voice, "or you'll be tired in the morning."

"Yes mum," replied Otto with a grin.

Shelby and Laura left the room. A few minutes later, there was the familiar clunking of the heavy doors to the accommodation block closing, and Otto turned out the lights, grinning at the prospect of tomorrow's exercise.


	4. The Vault

Otto was pulled out of his sleep by a loud, insistent beeping sound. He flipped open his blackbox as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"Hello H.I.V. ," he said.

"Good morning Otto," replied H.I.V. , "the treasure hunt exercise begins in fifteen minutes, at which time the doors to your room will open and you may begin the assessment."

"Thanks H.I.V. ," said Otto groggily. He got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom quickly showering, before coming out and putting on his black uniform. He flipped open his blackbox.

"How long till the doors open?" he asked H.I.V. .

"The doors to your accommodation block will open in five minutes." came the calm reply.

"Thanks."

Otto joined Wing by the door.

"Okay," said Otto, "we're meeting the girls in the atrium then heading straight to the Vault."

Wing nodded. A few minutes later, the doors opened, and Otto and Wing joined throng of excited students who were running to the atrium. Wing was carrying a hastily improvised sack on his back, to make it easier to carry the coins. When they reached the atrium, there were already a good ten coins in the sack. Otto looked around. Suddenly, he spotted Laura and Shelby in one corner, also holding some coins.

"Come on," Otto said to Wing, and they pushed their way through the crowd.

"So," said Shelby as the boys reached them, " shall we go?"

"Yes," replied Wing, "we shall."

The four of them moved quickly to the Vault. A lot of the corridors were empty, as most of the students had clearly decided to loot the accommodation blocks before moving on to more difficult areas. Otto had foreseen this, and the four of them were determined that by the time the other students left the accommodation blocks, all the coins from the secure areas would be gone. The group made good time to the Vault, stopping briefly to put coins in the sacks that Wing and Shelby carried. When they reached the Vault, Laura and Otto connected Laura's notebook to the electronic lock. Laura examined it for a moment, then grimaced.

"This could take a few minutes," she said anxiously, "It's very secure."

About ten minutes later, with Otto's help, Laura managed to get access to the controls for the doors and they rumbled open, revealing a room full of moving lasers. None of them knew what would happen if they broke one of the beams, and they didn't really want to. Laura groaned.

"Hey, Otto," suggested Shelby, "Can't you do that thing that you did in the Maze last year, where, y'know, when you avoid the lasers?"

"I can try," replied Otto nervously, "but I can't be sure that it will work."

Otto stared at the lasers for a few minutes, before stepping out into the room. The others watched apprehensively, as he wove his way through the lasers, missing collisions with just millimetres to spare. Eventually, he reached the end of the room, and the others simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. Otto flicked a switch on the wall, and the laser net deactivated, allowing Wing and the girls to cross the room without any alarms going off. When they got to the end, the door was secured by an manual lock. Shelby made short work of that and the four of them stepped into the room beyond. It was full of coins, enough to fill one bag. They quickly grabbed all the coins, filled Wing's bag, and set off, resetting the security system as they left.


	5. Thief!

Otto and the others jogged silently through the corridor. They had already decided that their next target would be the maze, as they were systematically working through the school's most secure areas. As they ran, a figure silently dropped from the ceiling behind them, and began to run behind Wing, who was bringing up the rear. After a few seconds, the figure snatched the bag that was slung over Wing's shoulder. Wing spun round, but the person behind was too quick for him, and was already sprinting down the corridor. Wing dashed after them, determined not to lose all their winnings. Once they were quite far away from Otto and the girls, the figure turned to face Wing. Their face was covered by a black mask. Wing launched a lightning fast kick at the thief's face which was blocked with contemptuous ease, twisting Wing's leg, sending him crashing to the ground.

"I suggest you stay there," the voice had a soft Russian accent, "I don't really want to force you to, but I will if I have to."

Wing stayed on the ground. If the figure in front of him had been anyone else in the world, he would have leapt to his feet, but with Raven, he knew that, no matter how skilful he was, it would not be enough.

"Good boy."

Raven smiled behind her mask. This had been too easy. She turned, and sprinted down the corridor, leaving Wing getting slowly to his feet, staring angrily at her back.


	6. Plot

**A/N Sorry this chapter's so short. And sorry I haven't updated this story in ages. Hope you enjoy! (And review...)**

Otto swore as he rounded the bend to see Raven sprinting down the corridor with all their coins.

"I'm sorry," Wing said as he picked himself up, "I could not stop her."

"It's not your fault," Shelby told him, "She jumped us."

"Aye, she probably knew we would have the most treasure, so she came after us," Laura added.

Otto nodded.

Raven smiled. Her plan had gone perfectly. She knew that, with a bit of effort, she could get into the secure areas of the school without clearance, but why bother when she could just steal coins from students? She suddenly had a brainwave. Otto and the others had been heading to the maze, where a lot of the coins would be stored. It would take the groups of students hunting in the accommodation blocks forever to find the amount of coins that those four would get in minutes and, judging by the places Malpense and co. had visited so far, they were probably heading to all the places where there would be a lot of treasure. If she followed them, she could simply wait until there was about five minutes until the end of the exercise, then take all their coins, and they wouldn't have time to do anything about it. She smiled again. The four students were in for a shock.


	7. Collecting

"Over here!" Wing called, "I've found some!"

Otto, Shelby and Laura ran over and helped Wing load the coins into his sack. Over the next half hour, the four of them found many more stashes of coins, and headed out of the maze. Over the course of the day, they infiltrated H.I.V. 's CPU, the geothermal power plant, Professor Pike's secret storeroom, and many other places, collecting hundreds of coins, all the while totally unaware of their silent tail.

"Fifteen minutes until the end of the exercise," H.I.V. announced calmly over the PA system.

Otto ran out of the final Shroud with his hands full of coins. Wing opened his sack and Otto dropped the coins inside. Both bags were close to overflowing, as were all the students' pockets. They had at least two thousand coins, and they were confident that, despite the fact that Raven had taken the treasure from the Vault, they were still going to win.

At the end of the exercise, H.I.V. would scan everyone and see how many coins each group had, to prevent cheating.

"Ten minutes until the end of the exercise."

"We don't have time to get into any other secure areas," Otto reasoned, "but the guard barracks are only two minutes away, we can go there."

The others nodded their agreement, and the four headed off to the barracks. They soon found some coins. Not as many as they would have liked, but every little helped.

"Five minutes until the end of the exercise."

"We don't really have time to go anywhere else," Laura said, "so we might as well just stay here."

"Yeah," agreed Shelby, "we are so gonna win."

"Four minutes until the end of the exercise."

Raven crept up on the two stuffed bags. They were sitting behind the students. This was going to be so easy.

"Three minutes until the end of the exercise."

Raven carefully picked up a bag in each hand, and blended back into the shadows.

"Two minutes until the end of the exercise."

Raven moved quietly round the room to the door.

"One minute until the end of the exercise."

She couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces.

"Five… Four… Three… Two… One…"

Shelby looked behind her, and cried out as she realised that the bags weren't there. She looked back, and spotted Raven next to the door.

"Zero."


	8. Chapter 8

Shelby looked as if she would happily throttle Raven. H.I.V. had scanned all the coins already, so there was no chance reclaiming their winnings. After a couple of seconds, the others realised what had happened, and their expressions turned from smug satisfaction to shocked indignation. By the time they had all gotten over the shock, Raven was gone.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Nero said as he came up to the lectern, "I'm sure you are all curious to know who won the treasure hunt assignment. I'm also sure you'll be disappointed to hear that it was a member of staff."

A mutter of annoyance went around the assembled students. Nero raised his hands for silence.

"I am delighted to declare Raven the winner of the inaugural treasure hunt exercise," he announced.

There was a halfhearted round of applause. At the back of the hall, Otto, Wing, Shelby and Laura sat, glaring at the spot on the wall where they knew Raven would have blended into the shadows.

The end!


End file.
